Is as the maiden's organ, fhrill and found, SCENE V. Beauty. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whofe red and white If you would lead these graces to the grave, Extreme Love. My lord and mafter loves you! O, fuch love Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd The non-pareil of beauty. Character of a noble Gentleman. Yet I fuppofe him virtuous, know him noble, Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth; In voices well divulg'd, free, learn'd, and valiant, And in dimension and the shape of nature, A gracious perfon: but yet I cannot love him; He might have took his answer long ago. Refolved Love. Oliv. (9) And all is, &c.] In A& 3. Olivia says, Be not afraid, good youth, I will not have you : And All is femblative-a woman's part, means, fays F., thy proper part in a play would be a woman's.-Women were then perfonated by boys. And fing them loud even in the dead of night; ACT II. SCENE II. Difguife. Difguife, I fee thou art a wickedness, Wherein the pregnant enemy (12) does much. How (10) Reverberate.] i. e. Caufing it to be driven back again. The adjective paffive ufed actively. Upton. (11) But you should, &c.] In a former fcene, the duke orders Cefario, Good youth, addrefs thy gait unto her: Be not deny'd accefs, ftand at her doors, (12) Pregnant enemy] Is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind. 7. who obferves that the next lines are obfcure. The meaning is, fays he, "How eafy is difguife to women! how eafily does their own falsehood, contained in their waxen changeable hearts, enable them to affume deceitful appearances!" The two next lines are perhaps tranfpofed, and should be read thus, For fuch as we are made, if fuch we be Alas, our frailty is the caufe, not we. I am not certain that this explanation is juft, fays St. Viola has been condemning thofe who difguife themselves, because Olivia had fallen in love with a fpecious appearance. How eafy is it, he adds, for those who are at once proper, i. e. fair in appearance, and falfe, i. e. deceitful, to make an impreffion on the hearts of women? The proper falfe is certainly a lefs elegant expreffion than the fair deceiver, but feems to mean the fame thing. A proper man, was the ancient phrase for a handsome man. The proper How easy is it, for the proper falfe In womens' waxen hearts to fet their forms! For fuch as we are made, if fuch we be. SCENE IV. Serious Mufic moft agreeable to Lov ers. Now, good Cefario, but that piece of fong, That old and antique fong we heard latt night : Methought it did relieve my paffion much; More proper falfe may yet be explained another way. S. generally ufes proper for peculiar. So in Othello, In my defunct and proper fatisfaction. The proper falfe will then mean thofe who are peculiarly falfe, either through premeditation or art. To fet their forms, means to plant their images, i. e. to make an impreffion on their eafy minds. The ingenious and learned author of Confiderations and Conjectures upon fome Paffages in ShakeSpear, printed at Oxford 1766, concurs in the first fuppofition, and adds Inftead of tranfpofing these lines according to Dr. Johnson's conjecture, I am rather inclin'd to read the latter thus, For fuch as we are made OF, fuch we be." So in the Tempest, -We are fuch stuff As dreams are made of. Olivia in this paffage fpeaks in the ufual manner of all infatuated perfons; who are apt to make the fates answerable for thofe follies or vices, which they have not fense or virtue enough to extricate themselves from, by their own exertions. She makes the fame idle apology for herself at the close of the first act. Fate, fhew thy force, ourselves we do not owe, See Mrs. G.-Owe is for own. More than light airs, and recollected terms True Love.. Duke. (13) Come hither, boy; if ever thou shalt love, In the fweet pangs of it, remember me; For fuch as I am, all true lovers are ; Save in the conftant image of the creature That is belov'd.-How doft thou like this tune? In Love, the Woman should be youngest Too old by heav'n! let ftill the woman take More longing, wavering, fooner loft and worn, (14) (13) See As you like it, p. 55, and note. Vio. (14) And worn.] I fee no reason why we should not read won, which is a more ufual and natural expreffion. There appears at firft view, fomething abfurd in the cha-racter of the duke, who speaks this fpeech, that immediately after (though here he owns, womens' paffions are more strong and true than mens'), he should tell us —(speaking of his own love) There is no woman's fides, &c. See the text. To which, after the fine fpeech She never told her love, &c. Viola adds, Was not this love indeed ?? We men may fay more, fwear more; but, indeed, Our Vio. I think it well, my lord. Duke. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent: For women are as rofes; whofe fair flower! Character of an old Song. Mark it, Cefario, it is old and plain, The fpinfters and the knitters in the fun, And the free maids (15) that weave their thread with bones Do ufe to chant it: it is filly footh, And dallies with the innocence of love Like the old age. Song Our fhews are more than will: for ftill we prove But though this may feem a contradiction and an overfight in the character, to me it rather appears a friking inftance of S's knowledge of human nature: for however we may give advice to others in matters where the heart is nearly concerned, we foon find, when we feel ourselves, things very different to what they appeared in speculation to us. Facile omnes cum valemus re&ta confilia ægrotis damus. Ter. See S's fine fpeech on Counfel of no Weight in Mifery Much ado about Nothing, Vol. I. p. 258. Ovid assures us, woman's love is far ftronger than man's; Excufe my paffion, if it foar above Your thought: no man can judge of woman's love. (15) Free maids.] i. e. vacant, unengaged, easy in mind. Silly footh, means plain, fimple truth. Dallies, means plays harmlessly. And the old age is the ages past, the times of fimplicity. 7. and St. |